“I want to let her trap herself,” I said.

“And I want her to do it in front of witnesses she chose.”

Chapter 23 — The Counter-Plan

Over the next three days, my children and I built the answer to her scheme.

Through old business connections I retained a private forensic security firm, which quietly installed high-definition audio and video throughout the house — the study, the master suite, the vanity where the false drawer was.

We brought in an independent toxicologist, who tested the residue in my evening tea service; the state laboratory later confirmed what he found.